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Now that the NHL playoffs are in full swing, EA decided it's the perfect time to offer the first details for its next hockey game, NHL 15. As the first game in the series to grace Xbox One and PS4 this fall, much of its features focus on its visuals and physics. For starters, next-gen versions of the game will feature "12 player NHL collision physics" as well as rebuilt puck physics, the former governing all actions by every player on the ice (like when they slam into each other) with "real-world physics."

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>announcementeaEA-SportsElectronic-Artsfall-2014hockeymicrosoftnhlnhl-15physicsplaystationps3ps4release-windowteaserteaser-trailerxboxxbox-oneMon, 05 May 2014 11:30:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2013/06/01/mits-relativistic-openrelativity-toolkit-now-freely-available/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/06/01/mits-relativistic-openrelativity-toolkit-now-freely-available/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/06/01/mits-relativistic-openrelativity-toolkit-now-freely-available/#comments
MIT Game Lab's OpenRelativity toolset, which powered its psychedelic first-person collection game/physics demonstration A Slower Speed of Light, is now available for free through Github. The toolkit works in both free and paid versions of Unity.

OpenRelativity allows for the real-time simulation of principles such as time dilation, Lorentz transformation and relativistic Doppler shift by allowing the designer to augment the ways in which light behaves. As it turns out, light moving at the speed it normally does is pretty dang essential to our world not transforming into a disorienting funhouse where cause and effect are meaningless. Who could have guessed?

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>a-slower-speed-of-lightlinuxmacMITmit-game-labopenrelativitypcphysicsrelativityunitySat, 01 Jun 2013 21:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/24/these-physx-fluid-simulations-are-making-us-thirsty/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/24/these-physx-fluid-simulations-are-making-us-thirsty/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/24/these-physx-fluid-simulations-are-making-us-thirsty/#commentsWhile we're not exactly prepared to call this stuff water, per se, the fluid dynamics on display in the latest PhysX demonstration are quite impressive nonetheless. In fact, the viscous sloshing is so realistic that we're pretty desperate for a blue-coconut slushie at this point, though preferably one that hasn't washed upon the thighs of a weird humanoid muskrat creature.

This video, as well as the two tucked after the break, were produced to demonstrate the principles outlined in a "Position Based Fluids," a paper recently published by Nvidia employees Miles Macklin and Matthias Muller. In laymen's terms, the duo have devised a less system-intensive way to render "incompressible" liquids, which is the key to ensuring realistic goo.

The document contains numerous formulas and is very concerned with concepts like "tensile instability" and "vorticity conﬁnement and viscosity," but it also features a lot of bunny rabbits, which helped our comprehension levels a great deal.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>fluid-dynamicshydrodynamicsnvidiapcphysicsPhysXWed, 24 Apr 2013 22:45:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/18/surgeon-simulator-2013-transplanted-to-steam-tomorrow/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/18/surgeon-simulator-2013-transplanted-to-steam-tomorrow/http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/18/surgeon-simulator-2013-transplanted-to-steam-tomorrow/#commentsSurgeon Simulator 2013 will be available for download on Steam tomorrow, April 19. It started out as a cheeky (and wince-inducing) game jam project by four developers made in just two days, and was later approved as a full release by Steam's Greenlight program.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bossa-studiosgame-jammacpcphysicsreleasesteam-greenlightsurgeon-simulatorsurgeon-simulator-2013Thu, 18 Apr 2013 23:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/09/a-slower-speed-of-light-is-an-open-source-game-on-special-rela/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/09/a-slower-speed-of-light-is-an-open-source-game-on-special-rela/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/09/a-slower-speed-of-light-is-an-open-source-game-on-special-rela/#commentsThe behavior of light may seem static and uninteresting (it's bright and fast, we get it), but there's actually an incredible amount of science going on that we generally don't experience during our normal lives.

A Slower Speed of Light, a new open-source game for PC and OSX from MIT Game Lab, explores the more intricate and interesting behaviors of light in a "relativistic game engine." As players collect objects, the speed of light is slowed and players are able to experience phenomena such as the Doppler effect, time dilation and the Lorentz transformation, among others.

While the open-source aspects of this project are not yet available, the plan is to release the game's Unity3D-based engine as OpenRelativity sometime in 2013. For now, the game itself can be downloaded here.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>a-slower-speed-of-lightclassical-physicsdoppler-effectfaster-than-lightlightLorentz-transformationmacmit-game-labopen-sourcepcphysicsrelativityspecial-relativitytime-dilationFri, 09 Nov 2012 23:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/26/portabliss-bad-piggies-ios/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/26/portabliss-bad-piggies-ios/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/26/portabliss-bad-piggies-ios/#commentsThis is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go.

Angry Birds is iOS gaming's juggernaut; even now, it regularly tops the App Store charts in both money earned and time played. Rovio, the Finnish company who created Angry Birds, put together dozens of mobile games before its first iOS release, and has seemingly hesitated to release anything else after it. The studio doesn't want to cannibalize its own success, so all we've seen from Rovio since Angry Birds' 2009 iOS release is a series of rebrands (including Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Space), and one licensed remake of a sandbox contraption game called Amazing Alex.

Bad Piggies, then, is the first original title we've seen from Rovio in years, but even it doesn't go too far off the multibillion-dollar reservation. It's a game set in the Angry Birds universe, that follows the green pigs and their goal of grabbing eggs rather than the frustrated fowl trying to demolish them. But instead of unleashing furious destruction by catapult, Bad Piggies asks the player to create modular vehicles that will cart the pigs across a level, reaching a map piece goal at the end.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>androidangry-birdsbad-piggiescreationiosipadiphonemobilephysicsportablisspuzzlesroviovehiclesWed, 26 Sep 2012 10:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/06/notch-still-working-on-0x10c-despite-a-few-stops-and-starts/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/06/notch-still-working-on-0x10c-despite-a-few-stops-and-starts/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/06/notch-still-working-on-0x10c-despite-a-few-stops-and-starts/#commentsSpeaking to Joystiq at PAX last weekend, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson told us that while most of his days lately are taken up with "just discussing how to do stuff" ("and then Reddit," he added slyly), work continues on the 0x10c space game he announced a while ago. Oh, and in case you're still wondering how the title is pronounced, Notch calls it "ten-to-the-C."

"I have the game world fleshed out, all the soft stuff, like the setting," he says. "And I have the emulator for the CPU, which is probably the most complex part of it, all written. I had a prototype for walking around and trying out all of the graphics styles, but that wasn't really fun. So I kind of took a break to recharge my batteries and deal with some personal stuff, and then I'll probably start over again when I get back to Sweden." Starting over again means he'll just rework the graphical engine on the game, and "rethink how the rendering is done, how the physics is done for the character."

The team working on 0x10c did have a building interface in mind for players to design their own spaceships, and Notch said it was heavily based on the popular 3D Construction Kit. But the interface wasn't fun, he told us. "We had something kind of inspired by [the Kit], with cubes you could remove corners from to make angles, but it turned really annoying when you tried to build anything."

And Notch also confirmed that the game, whenever it is ready, will be released to the public in the way Minecraft was, in various states as it's being built. Notch says he got the idea to release games that way from the old roguelike genre, of all places. "The first version they release is just you can walk around in the dungeon and that's it, that's the extent of what you can do. That's where I got it from." That release schedule, he said, works well for games that fall back on sandbox or user-generated content. "If you're making like The Walking Dead or something, because it's story driven," he said, then obviously a half-finished version won't work. "You're just going to ruin it for people in the other versions."

When we first got our hands on Puppy Punch Productions' Colour Bind at GDC this year, it looked much like it does now, in full, ready-for-release form. That's the thing about Colour Bind - it's not a feat in visual representation, but the ideas behind its physics-puzzle gameplay are outstanding all on their own, and flashy graphics would only serve to detract from its finesse.

Colour Bind - now officially announced for PC, Man and Linux this year - has the player control a small vehicle and its gravity, along with the gravity of the surrounding terrain, by enabling different colors. The puzzles themselves are tricky in two layers: first in figuring out what to do with the gravity and then in the actual execution, as developer Finn Morgan describes in the above introduction video.

Colour Bind is set to launch "soon" and includes more than 50 levels, local co-op and a level editor compatible with Steam Workshop.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>colour-bindfinn-morgangravityLinuxmacpcphysicspuppy-punch-productionspuzzleThu, 09 Aug 2012 18:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/21/quantum-conundrum-review/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/21/quantum-conundrum-review/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/21/quantum-conundrum-review/#commentsBack in February, Airtight Games creative director Kim Swift told us that she wanted Quantum Conundrum to play like a Saturday-morning cartoon - lighthearted with a slapstick edge, similar to Looney Tunes or Cartoon Network programming. This may be why I found it so unnerving that Quantum Conundrum reminded me more of Fight Club than any kid-friendly cartoons.

The standard-edition DVD of 2002's Fight Club has a looping menu that plays a round of light, elevator-style percussion music while the screen flickers invitingly on the Play button; this lasts just long enough to lull the passive listener into a false sense of tranquility, before it smashes into a measure of jarring electrical guitar and pulsating images for a few terrible seconds. Then the screen clears, and the torture repeats.

One night in my wayward youth, I fell asleep watching this Fight Club DVD. For hours after the movie had finished and returned to the menu, I would be jolted awake just enough to know nothing about what was going on, only to immediately fall back asleep once the soothing interlude picked up again. For hours. It was disorienting, sinister and, looking back on it, kind of hilarious.

Quantum Conundrum's soundtrack may be similar to Fight Club's menu screen's, but the game itself rides those same waves of frustration, persistence and disjointed comedy - the game is lovely, but the story is jarring. Some of its story elements are almost funny, some of the narrative almost make sense, all of it almost reaches a realm of lucid clarity. And yes, it does this for hours.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>airtight-gamesKim-Swiftmicrosoftpcphysicsplaystationportalps3puzzlerquantum-conundrumSquare-EnixxboxThu, 21 Jun 2012 17:15:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2011/11/12/levine-bioshock-infinite-wont-favor-close-range-weapons-objec/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/11/12/levine-bioshock-infinite-wont-favor-close-range-weapons-objec/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/11/12/levine-bioshock-infinite-wont-favor-close-range-weapons-objec/#comments
Ken Levine and the team at Irrational Games are switching things up for BioShock Infinite -- instead of being based on the Objectivist society of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Infinite is aiming for more of an Erik Larson's Devil in the White City feel, with a focus on physics rather than gene splicing. Irrational is also switching up some of the most recognizable gameplay from the first two BioShock games, namely the ability to beat them almost entirely with the shotgun and Electro Bolt, Levine told PlayStation.Blog.

"One of the first things we did when we started on BioShock Infinite was to draw a graph with y and z axes, and to say that one of those axes was the number of enemies in an encounter and the other was the range of those enemies," Levine said. "In the original BioShock, the entire game lived in one corner of that graph - few enemies, all at close range - so the Electro Bolt and shotgun were perfect. BioShock Infinite is going to have much greater ranges and, potentially, far more enemies, so we're greatly increasing the spectrum of encounters that are possible, and that requires the player use a broader set of tools."

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bioshock-infiniteElectro-BoltKen-Levinemicrosoftpcphysicsplaystationplaystation-vitaps3shotgunvitaxboxSat, 12 Nov 2011 15:30:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/02/nicalis-nightsky-coming-to-windows-on-january-6/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/02/nicalis-nightsky-coming-to-windows-on-january-6/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/02/nicalis-nightsky-coming-to-windows-on-january-6/#comments
Nicalis, best known for releasing Daisuke Amaya's Cave Story on the Wii and DSi, has announced that it will be bringing the 2D physics-based platformer NightSky to Windows on January 6. The title, by Sweden's Nifflas, was originally scheduled for release on WiiWare as well. Nicalis says it hasn't "given up on consoles" for the game, but the PC and Mac releases will arrive first.

The game looks intriguing -- you can see a short launch trailer after the break. There's no word on price yet (or where you'll be able to get it, other than the official website), but assuming the game arrives as planned, those who want to get their hands on this 2009 IGF finalist will finally be able to do so.

Fall Over is a simple concept; as a fancy-suited gentleman, reach the end of the level with as many coins in your pocket as possible. The challenge is working with the game's real-world physics, including the little things we take for granted -- like accidentally knocking your character on his back after hitting his head on a platform above -- and keeping your coins safely tucked away. It's the engine that would make Mario scream, and it's a free game worth a few minutes of your time. Make sure to grab your top hat and monocle before checking it out.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>2darvi-teikarifall-overfreehempuliindiephysicsplatformerreactor-productsTue, 04 Aug 2009 20:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/24/gdc09-havok-gets-smart-announces-havok-ai/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/24/gdc09-havok-gets-smart-announces-havok-ai/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/24/gdc09-havok-gets-smart-announces-havok-ai/#commentsHavok is exploding like a red barrel into the world of artificial intelligence. With ragdoll grace, the middleware company announced its new Havok AI SDK during GDC 2009, promising "unique solutions" to various AI pathfinding issues faced by today's game developers.

Like the folks at 1UP, we're not exactly sure what this means for gamers, though the new software is supposed to be fully compatible with Havok's other products and tools, such as Havok Physics. Perhaps now enemy patrols will get the good sense not to seek shelter behind things that go kablooey when bullets begin to fly.

If, like us, you spent hours gawking at Pocket Physics on the DS (or Crayon Physics, its predecessor on the PC), you'll know that it's one of the most time-consuming homebrew titles on the handheld. Sooner or later, it was inevitable that the homebrew community would spawn a Wii version, and homebrewer Beardface has answered the call with WiiPhysics. The video above is version 2.1 of the title, though it has since enjoyed a slight update, adding a two-player mode. Download it here!

It's not the size of your explosion that matters, but rather how many random objects you can send flying about in realistic fashion. Microsoft Game Studios today announced a new "perpetual licensing agreement" with the physics connoisseurs at Havok, opening up the middleware outfit's suite of current and future tech to MGS and its development partners. Perpetual, you say? Sounds like someone is over their puppy love and is ready for a real commitment.

Havok's reputation for overturning tables in dramatic fashion is well known. A number of Microsoft's titles, both internally developed and published, utilize the technology already, giving us reason to believe that whatever Microsoft Game Studios has up its sleeves next, it's sure to have exploding barrels aplenty.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>havokmicrosoftmicrosoft-game-studiosmiddlewarephysicsWed, 06 Aug 2008 22:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/18/were-pulled-in-by-gravity/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/18/were-pulled-in-by-gravity/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/18/were-pulled-in-by-gravity/#commentsBeing nice to look at is hardly essential for a puzzle game, but that's not to say we're opposed to easy-on-the-eye puzzlers such as World of Goo. Deep Silver's Gravity is another entry in the genre that is also a looker, with each of the title's 100 puzzles featuring a unique, hand-painted background (IGN has bigger screens if you want to admire them some more).

As for how it plays, this debut trailer suggests that the Deep Silver team have been spending some time with Crayon Physics, or maybe even DS homebrew hit Pocket Physics. You'll hear no complaints from us if the Wii gets its own Crayon Physics!

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One of the most well-known development tools in the world has been secured by 2K Games for some upoming titles. The Havokphysics engine is used in squillions of high-profile games like Halo 3, Oblivion, BioShockandSuper Smash Bros. Brawl. Naturally, 2K wanted to acquire the license for none other than Carnival Games: Mini-Golf.

Before crying shovelware, the original Carnival Games sold over a million copies, so 2K is doing the right thing by wanting to get the best software for improving the series. A few other titles are also in line to use Havok, but no word on specific names as yet.

As we've already established, we're not science people ('D' grade at GCSE Science, thank you). Bring up a subject such as photosynthesis, or the properties of sulfur dioxide, and it's likely you won't get much of a reply, short of us standing there and saying "buh?" like some slack-jawed, mouth-breathing farmhand.

In other words, Gamasutra's article on debunking the physics found in Super Mario Galaxy never stood a chance of entering our enfeebled brains and staying there. Oh, it definitely interested us, but terms such as "unit vector" and "collision mask" quickly appeared to make us feel like absolute thickos again. What we did pick up from the feature was that gravity can only exist in the real world on spherical surfaces, and that the laws of physics themselves were twisted to accommodate Galaxy's zany world of misshapen planetoids.

If you're one of those people who feels confident conducting conversations about "surface normals," give it a look.

It was only a few short years ago when in-game physics were a novelty, like lava lamps and black lights. Today, however, like barrels that explode when shot, obeying the laws of physics is expected behavior for objects in most any game. This turnabout is pinned largely on the popularity of Havok's core collection of animation and physics tools, which the company notes that it will make available to PC game developers for free later this year.

The toolset, dubbed Havok Complete, has been used in creating a number of high profile titles, such as Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword. Beginning in May, Havok will make available these same tools to developers for non-commercial use, while both it and parent company Intel also plan to offer those devs deemed worthy with a free commercial distribution license as well. Says Havok, the move is designed to "boost creative game development throughout the industry," from indies and academics, to PC enthusiasts who for too long have lived without the joy of being able to throw virtual ragdolls down flights of stairs.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>animationhavokhavok-completehavokcompletePCphysicsSat, 23 Feb 2008 18:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/19/havok-upgrades-to-5-5-adds-cloth-and-destruction/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/19/havok-upgrades-to-5-5-adds-cloth-and-destruction/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/19/havok-upgrades-to-5-5-adds-cloth-and-destruction/#commentsThe Havok Physics engine has been upgraded to 5.5, according to a press release from today. The release includes new enhancements, features, "dramatically accelerating the development of cross platform, [and] cutting edge electronic entertainment."

The Havok Animation and Havok Behavior toolsets were also updated to 5.5, and the PlayStation 3 tools also received enhanced collision query optimizations. In a separate press release, Havok announced Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction, whose intentions and use are pretty self-explanatory.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>clothdestructionhavokphysicsTue, 19 Feb 2008 19:15:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/16/a-very-jenga-esque-crysis-physics-demonstration/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/16/a-very-jenga-esque-crysis-physics-demonstration/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/16/a-very-jenga-esque-crysis-physics-demonstration/#commentsFiled under: PC, First Person ShootersWe wonder if there's a psychological condition associated with our fascination in watching things fall down in video games. It started out harmlessly enough, with the popularization of the Gmod (and the Rube Goldberg machines that followed), then picked up steam with the brief Oblivion dominoes trend, but a recent video showing the various things you can do with 3,000 barrels in Crysis is the pièce de résistance in this eccentric genre.

We can't stop fantasizing about what crude oil masterpieces we'd like to construct and demolish -- if only we were typing this on a sleek, gaming-centric rig, and not our trusty Performa 5200.

With consoles constantly encroaching on what used to be exclusively PC territory, it's refreshing to know that there are some things, such as mods, that remain the domain of those who prefer keyboard and mouse over thumbsticks. For example, while Epic's Unreal Tournament III will eventuallyfind its way to gamers of both persuasions, it will be PC enthusiasts who enjoy the added benefit of mods, though word is that players will somehow be able to share mods between platforms.

The latest mod tools for the game come from physics moguls AGEIA, who have announced plans to release a mod kit designed around the company's PhysX GPU processor, promising modders "everything they need to easily add PhysX-powered content into the UT3 universe." The kit, which will be available in December, will include additional tools, guides, tutorials and documentation and assets and examples on top of the game's existing mod tools.

In addition, to show that it's serious AGEIA has also released a collection of "Extreme PhysX Mod Levels," which are now available and aim to demonstrate why we should all care about the PhysX processor. This collection includes the LightHouse and Tornado mod levels, the latter of which can be seen in video form here. More levels are promised, and while we can't say that this has driven us to brave the Black Friday crowds to lay down the geld for one of those cards, AGEIA no doubt hopes that players include PhysX cards on their shopping lists this holiday season.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>ageiaepicmidwaymodsPCphysicsphysxunrealunreal-tournamentunreal-tournament-3unreal-tournament-iiiut3Thu, 22 Nov 2007 19:01:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/03/line-rider-inspired-by-gamasutra/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/03/line-rider-inspired-by-gamasutra/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/03/line-rider-inspired-by-gamasutra/#comments
We've exerted our influence on game design a few times before-- and by "a few times" we mean "once", and by "game design" we mean "a subtitle." It hardly compares to Gamasutra's accidental influence on Line Rider.

The creator of the Flash game, soon to be a DS and Wii game, didn't know enough about physics, and therefore couldn't make the physics-based game we all enjoy. That is, until he saw an article on Gamasutra with simple physics calculations laid out in pseudocode. He adapted the pseudocode into real code, integrated it with a drawing tool, and Line Rider was born. We love hearing about gaming websites Making a Difference. We'd love to feel useful someday ourselves!

After the indie platformer N was announced for Xbox Live Arcade, PSP, and DS (known as N+), a level design competition was launched to tap the collective creativity of the N community. Special versions of the N editor (Ned) were released and levels are specific to each platform, meaning even the biggest N fans would, in theory, have to buy all three versions of N+ to play every single level. Over 80 new levels were chosen from the submissions, and each one is listed with a full screenshot on the SUBLiME web page.

And for those of us too cheap/lazy to wait for and buy N+, the original N is still available for free, complete with editor and hundreds of custom levels to play.

Penumbra is a 3D horror game by Frictional Games created to show off the studio's proprietary physics engine. It plays like a Resident Evil meets Half-Life 2 mashup -- which is reason enough to give it a try -- but also offers something new in the realm of interactivity. Almost every object you see can be moved, carried, and used. If you can't reach the vent on the ceiling, try piling some junk on the floor to stand on. Steam blocking your path? Cover the open pipe with whatever's lying around. Set in an abandoned factory, Penumbra provides a deliciously dark, spooky atmosphere filled with mystery. The indie gaming community ate up the initial offering, so Frictional Games immediately began work on a commercial-sized helping.

The demo for Penumbra: Overture has finally been released. Three episodes are planned over the next year with the first installment hitting March 30 for $19.99. In addition to a longer adventure, Overture promises even better visuals (which were excellent to begin with) and deeper interaction with the game environment. A combat system is also in place, though the focus is on solving environmental puzzles, not shredding baddies.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>3DadventureFPShorrorindependentindiePCphysicsFri, 09 Mar 2007 12:27:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/07/clowns-falling-down-stairs-the-ultimate-physics-game/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/07/clowns-falling-down-stairs-the-ultimate-physics-game/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/07/clowns-falling-down-stairs-the-ultimate-physics-game/#commentsFiled under: GDCYesterday, in his talk at the Independent Games Summit, Matthew Wegner beat up clowns. To be specific, he showed a physics sim clip of a dozen full-costumed clown ragdolls tumbling helplessly down a spiral staircase. Wegner, head of the physics game site Fun-Motion, called clowns falling down stairs "the ultimate physics game." Why? Because it's a lot easier to identify with clowns in peril then, let's say, a bunch of shapes. Besides, it's just hilarious. Later on, Wegner also showed a sim of a few hundred cows falling through a mess of painful looking barriers. Also very excellent.

The thing that Wegner didn't mention though is what's up with all this sadism? Physics games are definitely fun, but what's most fun is destroying stuff--clowns, cows, ragdoll fighters, whatever. So why the connection? Regardless, if I were a clown at GDC right now, I would probably be in hiding.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>ClownsGDCGDC07physicsWed, 07 Mar 2007 18:23:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/05/tower-of-goo-evolves-into-world-of-goo-2d-boy-is-born/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/05/tower-of-goo-evolves-into-world-of-goo-2d-boy-is-born/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/05/tower-of-goo-evolves-into-world-of-goo-2d-boy-is-born/#commentsFiled under: Culture, PC, PuzzleThe Experimental Gameplay Project has produced a number of crazy, unique, and surreal games, such as On a Rainy Day, Attack of the Killer Swarm, and probably the most famous, Tower of Goo. Recently project founder Kyle Gabler stepped up with buddy Ron Carmel to start a brand new indie game studio, 2D Boy. The bubbly had barely been popped when they announced their first project, World of Goo.

What is World of Goo? According to the 2D Boy website, "it is extremely mysterious." Let's go out on a limb and say it will be a lot like Tower of Goo but inflated to full-game proportions.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>casualexperimentalgameplayindependentindiePCphysicspuzzlesimpleMon, 05 Mar 2007 23:25:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/25/new-havok-release-supports-ps3/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/25/new-havok-release-supports-ps3/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/25/new-havok-release-supports-ps3/#commentsFiled under: Sony PlayStation 3Havok has officially unleashedHavok 4.5, the latest version of their comprehensive animation and physics toolset for developers. The update adds full optimization for the PS3 and its Cell architecture, and is derived from Havok's cooperation with Evolution Studios in the construction of Motorstorm's physics system. Upcoming games utilizing the 4.5 variant are expected to handle Havok instructions between five and ten times faster than the previous release.

"Havok 4.5's ability to allow developers to massively scale game content will make it possible to develop even more compelling, realistic and complex worlds that harness the full power of new generation architectures," says Havok's David O'Meara. Though the emphasis remains on crafting "realistic" worlds, one might also consider the impact that robust physics and animation have on "unrealistic", fantasy games. When objects and clothing behave as you expect them to, it can lend even the most unusual world a sense of believability and cohesion. It's not all sliding crates and rolling barrels, you know.

As Molyneux iterated, relying on Havok allows Lionhead developers to focus on the team's lofty aspirations, most-simply defined as dynamic regions, unconditional love, wealth accumulation, constrained combat, and an as of yet undisclosed uber-feature. As with the original Fable, at this stage it's hard to distinguish fantasy from reality (what gameplay elements will and won't make it into Fable 2's final release). But there is now at least one certainty: ragdolls.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>AnimationFableFable 2Fable2HavokHavok CompleteHavokCompleteLionheadLionhead-StudiosPeter MolyneuxPeterMolyneuxPhysicsRagdollSequelXbox-360Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:15:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/01/physics-acceleration-hot-or-not/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/01/physics-acceleration-hot-or-not/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/01/physics-acceleration-hot-or-not/#commentsFiled under: PC, Peripherals, BusinessPhysics is becoming the new buzzword when it comes to hyped-up hardware. Ageia's PhysX processor has been
touted as an important step forward -- the add-in card, which is already available in Alienware's machines, goes on
sale this month, though it will be some time before the games which support it are released.

However, Ageia
hasn't sewn up the market. NVidia is also getting on the bandwagon by supporting Havok (as announced at GDC). Ageia claim that their card
can generate more objects than a high-end graphics rig can cope with, so it will be interesting to see how a dedicated
graphics card handles the task of physics too.

Microsoft is jumping in the fray as well -- not much is
known about DirectPhysics,
but if history repeats itself then a firm hand from Microsoft could
do the hyperbolic world of physics accelerators a world of good. Ultimately, physics acceleration has a lot of
potential, but the cost of an additional card is off-putting; as more emerges about the alternatives to PhysX, it'll be
easier to make an informed decision.